Gun violence in Massachusetts, by the numbers

A Sudbury group demonstrates for stricter gun control recently. Dan Holmes/MetroWest Daily News

With so much talk at both the state and federal levels about new gun control measures, I’ve been interested in what statistics can tell us about gun violence and ownership in Massachusetts, regardless on what side of the debate you may stand on.

Guns are the murder weapon of choice in Massachusetts.FBI crime statistics show firearms were the most common weapons used in homicides in Massachusetts each year from 2006-2011, the most recent full year for which statistics were available. In 2011, two-thirds of the 183 murders in the Bay State were committed with guns. The percentage went up and down each year we examined, dipping as low as 54 percent in 2008, but never dropped below 50 percent. Much of the time, the FBI stats don’t say what kind of gun was used, but when they do, handguns surpassed rifles and shotguns by a huge margin. Knives or other “cutting instruments” were the second most common murder weapon, used anywhere from 16 percent to 30 percent of the time in the years examined. See for yourself.

Gun crimes have been on the rise in Massachusetts. A look farther back at the same FBI data, as previously reported elsewhere, shows that firearms-related crimes have risen significantly in Massachusetts, even since the state passed what is widely regarded as one of the nation’s toughest gun control laws in 1998. Gun murders almost doubled since then. Gun rights advocates say it’s proof the law hasn’t worked; gun control advocates say it’s a sign that much more lax laws in surrounding states have made it difficult to stem to flow of guns across the border. Indeed, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that in 2011, only about a third of guns recovered in crimes in Massachusetts and traced to their origin came from within the state. Thirteen percent came from New Hampshire, 8 percent from Maine and 5 percent all the way from Florida. The percentage of in-state guns used in crimes was about the same in 2006.

Gunshot wounds have risen, too. The state Department of Public Health tracks gunshot wounds reported by Massachusetts emergency departments to its Weapon Related Injury Surveillance System. A 2009 report on this data found reports of gunshot wounds declined from 980 in 1994 to 520 in 1998, then increased relatively steadily to 839 in 2007. Wounds from sharp instruments outpaced gun injuries throughout this period.

But mass shootings are rare in the Bay State. A list of mass shootings in the U.S. from 1982-2012, compiled by Mother Jones, lists only one in Massachusetts: The Michael McDermott shooting in Wakefield in 2000. McDermott shot and killed seven people at his job at Edgewater Technology. Mother Jones defined mass shootings as when a shooter kills at least four people, not including him or herself, in a single incident in a public place, excluding armed robberies and gang violence. A Bay State expert has criticized that methodology – while the magazine argued random mass shootings are on the rise, James Alan Fox at Northeastern University says if you use a broader definition, such crimes haven’t actually increased over time.